On the afternoon of May 8, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the State Administration of Market Supervision jointly published the heavyweight document "Opinions on Regulating Real Estate Brokerage Services" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), because it involves guidance on specific issues such as brokerage service charges, The document aroused the market's focus.
However, after systematically sorting out the content of the document and recent market trends, the Hong Kong Stock Research Institute believes that its focus is still on the word "standard".
First of all, the focus of this document is not to reduce fees, but to continue to clarify the order of the industry, especially to solve some long-standing problems in the transaction. Secondly, because of the purpose of making the market more regulated, judging from some suggestions in the document, the real estate brokerage industry is bound to continue to strengthen the momentum of specialization and branding, and the so-called intermediary market will usher in an improvement in quality.
Fee control is not fee reduction, and fee reduction is not the goal
As soon as the document came out, since the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the State Administration for Market Regulation both had the ability to actually influence market development, the first concern it aroused was whether the industry would definitely usher in regulation at the policy level? Whether judging from the implementation measures suggested in the document or from the form of "opinions", the means and tone are relatively soft.
In fact, there are many detailed suggestions and measures in the ten articles of the document, which involve the underlying links of the transaction. This means that the government pays close attention to the development status of the industry. The core value that the document wants to convey is "quality improvement" rather than "management". Otherwise, many measures will not be specific to practitioners and front-line management agencies.
In connection with the recent key changes in the "transfer with mortgage" in the real estate market, the core topic of this document is ready to emerge.
On March 30, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the "Notice on Collaboratively Doing a Good Job in Real Estate "Transfer with Charge" to Facilitate People's Benefits and Enterprise Services, and began to fully implement the transfer with charge on the basis of the previous pilot projects in many cities across the country. The core of the mortgage transfer is to optimize the existing debt handover process in the transaction process, indirectly reduce intermediate costs, and facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers. The word "cost" is actually the core of this real estate brokerage service specification.
The market needs the healthy circulation of second-hand housing, and "transfer with mortgage" is a major means. However, in reality, there are some historical and customary problems in my country's real estate brokerage services, which are still affecting the healthy development of the industry.
Taking the market focus of agency fees as an example, the agency fee rates in domestic industries mostly fluctuate on the basis of 2%, which is at a low level in the world (6% in the United States and 5% in Japan). However, transactions in other countries and regions generally require the seller to pay intermediary fees, while in China it is mainly the buyer who pays. This has gradually formed certain restrictions on market liquidity: intermediary fees have become a rigid cost of transactions, buyers' pressure cannot be released, and the market cycle has slowed down.
This cost exists objectively, but it is not necessarily reasonable to put it on the buyer. Moreover, due to the vast domestic market, regional differences and differences in local customs may affect the quantification of costs, thereby bringing uncertainty to real estate transactions and affecting the actual rights and interests of buyers and sellers.
Therefore, the "Opinions" are aimed at reducing the unnecessary and unreasonable part of the real estate transfer process, such as the following statement: "City and county housing and urban-rural development departments must fully implement the real-name registration of brokerage practitioners, strengthen Management by brokerage practitioners." Such detailed planning in the sinking market is obviously to eliminate the uncertainty in the market. The concern about the cost is also concerned about the unreasonable costs that may be hidden in it.
Specifically, the final method of operation is yet to be discussed. For example, Guo Yi, the chief analyst of Heshuo Institute, believes: "From the perspective of future development trends, bilateral charges may become a solution for the future industry to ensure service quality and practitioners' service income balance. , or lead to the formation of a new pattern in the industry."
But there is no doubt that the ultimate goal is to reduce transaction friction costs and ensure a transparent and reasonable market. The "Opinion" itself is just a lighthouse, guiding the industry to start from the actual situation of real estate and find a recognized transaction path.
Guo Yi said: "The policy that was finally implemented did not directly control the fee rate. It provides a new idea for the handling of complex industries such as intermediaries. It takes into account healthy development and bottom-line management. There is no one-size-fits-all, which reflects the wisdom of the government."
Specifications are still final
It is worth mentioning that this "Opinion" is not a purely restrictive document, and there are many in-depth suggestions for the industry, which further reflects its purpose of promoting the regulation and high-quality development of the overall market.
For example, the "Opinions" pointed out: "The brokerage services provided by real estate brokerage institutions are composed of basic services and extended services." Basic services are a must for transactions, while extended services are value-added items that facilitate consumers such as agency loans. The document emphasizes that each Extended services can be provided separately.
Yan Yuejin, research director of E-House Research Institute, believes that this expression "will benefit the intermediary industry to explore the 'new menu' of services, especially extended services will be a new field worth exploring in the future."
"Extended service value-added income will be a new area that the industry needs to think about," he said, "Such content is worthy of thinking and research by the real estate intermediary industry."
Therefore, after understanding this level of meaning, there are two main ideas in the Opinions as a whole. First, the industry boundaries are clarified. For example, in terms of brokerage service charges, the three elements of pricing are clarified: service content, service quality, and supply-demand relationship. Second, it leaves the independent space of the market, so that compliance and leading enterprises can play a leading role in demonstration and explore the development of the industry under new trends.
Wu Jing, director of the Hang Lung Real Estate Research Center of Tsinghua University, tenured associate professor, and doctoral supervisor, pointed out that the "Opinions" also hopes that leading companies in the industry will take the lead in improving the standardization of the industry and making diversification attempts. better effect.
As written in the "Opinions": "Real estate brokerage service charges are determined by the parties to the transaction based on the service content, service quality, and factors such as market supply and demand. Encourage the implementation of tiered pricing based on the principle that the higher the transaction price, the lower the service fee rate. The main body is still the market, and the market's own adjustment mechanism is the final decision maker that affects the transaction. Therefore, those enterprises that conduct business under the regulatory framework have ushered in a more favorable stage.
Finally, the strict protection of personal information, provision of standardized transaction contracts, and clearly marked prices proposed in the "Opinions" have already become the guidelines for the development of some enterprises. At present, the strict promotion of regulations to the first-tier market will undoubtedly further promote the specialization, branding, and scale of real estate transactions, and bring confidence and security to more traders who lack transaction experience and do not understand market conditions.
The implementation of the "Opinions" is not a temporary thing, and it must be combined with the actual market situation in the end. I believe that the norms of market order will answer all current questions.
Source: Hong Kong Stock Research Institute